Florida GOP congressman who clashed with Boehner to retire

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Florida Republican congressman who clashed with former House Speaker John Boehner said Monday that he will not run for re-election next year.

Rep. Rich Nugent, part of the tea party wave of GOP lawmakers elected in 2010, cited the amount of time he said the job has forced him to spend away from his wife and grandchildren.

"The tug of being apart from family has just become too great," he said in a statement.

Nugent had been a member of the House Rules Committee. But in January, he was among 25 rebellious conservative Republicans who voted against re-electing Boehner, R-Ohio, as speaker. Soon after that vote, Nugent was removed from the Rules panel — a committee over which the speaker had strong sway in picking members.

Also removed from that panel was Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Fla., for whom Nugent had voted and who voted for himself for speaker.

Boehner retired from Congress last week, under fire from a band of House conservatives who considered him too autocratic and too willing to reach compromises with President Barack Obama.

Nugent, 64, is in his fifth year in Congress.

His Gulf Coast Florida district is considered safely Republican in next November's elections. Nugent received two-thirds of the vote in 2014, and in 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney received 59 percent of its vote against Obama.

"We care deeply about shrinking the size and scope of government," Nugent said in a statement announcing his decision. "We care deeply about restoring America's place in the world. We'll get somebody new — somebody with real fire in the belly — who shares our beliefs and is ready to give it a shot in Washington."